68 fake degree holders in NHA, Senate told

Senate was informed on Tuesday that out of 1,345 persons inducted in the National Highway Authority (NHA), the degrees/certificates of 68 were found to be fake.

During the question hour, minister for communications told the House that as many as 26 fake degree/certificate holders had been dismissed from service, whereas disciplinary proceedings were afoot against the remaining 42 persons.

On this, Senate Chairman Nayyar Hussain Bokhari said that parliamentarians, found to be having counterfeit degrees were arrested and punished, whereas the government employees merely suspended. He called for doing away with what he called discrimination.

The government was asked in the Senate to control pilferage of electricity and rampant corruption and provide relief to consumers by reducing loadshedding hours.MQM’s Tahir Hussain Mashhadi, on a point of order, pointed out that with rise in temperature, power outages had been increased. He asked the government to address this issue and the issue of price spiral of essential goods on priority.

Senator Saeed Ghani of PPPP raised the issue of looting of lockers at MCB in Karachi and said that the bank should make for losses of its clients, as it was the responsibility of the bank to ensure security of the assets kept in its lockers.

BNP-Awami Senator Kulsoom Parveen was unhappy over what she called unnecessary disclosure of details of the parliamentarians’ assets, particularly the reports about how much gold they owned.

The senator from Balochistan claimed that as compared to the parliamentarians, patwaris had much more in their kitty. In a written reply to a question by Saeed Ghani, Law Minister Pervaiz Rashid told the House that 1,770 persons were convicted through courts and plea bargains. Rs258.392 billion recovered from the offenders and Rs6.251 billion deposited in public exchequer, the minister said.

Minister of State for Education and Training Muhammad Balighur Rehman said in reply to a question that the Higher Education Commission had received Rs487.160 million as foreign assistance since 2009 and an expenditure of Rs401.006 million had been incurred. Out of which Rs171.780 million were earmarked for stipend, he added.

Source: thenews